PepsiCo India CEO D Shivakumar resigns join Aditya Birla Group

PepsiCo India Chairman and CEO D Shivakumar has resigned, almost four years after taking over as head of the cola giant. Shivakumar had joined PepsiCo after having worked at Nokia, prior to which he was with Hindustan Unilever and Philips Consumer Electronics. Shivakumar will now join Aditya Birla Group as its Executive Vice-President (Corporate Strategy and Business Development.

PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt. Ltd’s chairman and chief executive officer D. Shivakumar has resigned, and will be joining Aditya Birla Group as president (corporate strategy and business development).

Ahmed El Sheikh, currently senior vice-president and general manager for PepsiCo Egypt and Jordan, will succeed Shivakumar as PepsiCo India CEO, the beverage maker said in a statement.

Shivakumar, who will join over the next three months, will report directly to Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla. The $41-billion conglomerate has businesses spread across sectors including telecommunications, cement, chemicals, mining, textiles, financial services, retail and e-commerce, among others, in 36 countries.

Ahmed El Sheikh’s appointment as PepsiCo India CEO was announced by the American firm’s CEO (Asia, Middle East and Africa) Sanjeev Chadha.

Ahmed El Sheikh will join PepsiCo India on 1 November and Shivakumar will continue with PepsiCo till 31 December, Chadha said. “Shiv has been with PepsiCo for the past four years and has been instrumental in leading the transformation journey for the company. Notably, he has been a key driver for portfolio transformation and helped develop our nutrition business, launching winning innovations with our Quaker and Tropicana brands. Under his leadership, we also deepened consumer engagement with our flagship brands. We thank him for his commitment to the company and wish him the best in his future endeavours,” Chadha said in the statement.

Shivakumar did not respond to calls and messages from Mint.

Shivakumar’s decision to resign as PepsiCo India CEO comes within months of rival Coca-Cola India’s president (India and South-West Asia) Venkatesh Kini deciding to quit in April. Kini was succeeded by T. Krishnakumar.

Shivakumar, who succeeded Manu Anand at PepsiCo India, joined the American food and beverage maker a few months after he quit Finnish handset maker Nokia Oyj as a senior executive. At Nokia, Shivakumar was instrumental in pushing the firm’s low-cost mobile handsets across rural India, helping Nokia to dominate the handset market in India for about a decade.

At PepsiCo, Shivakumar has been overseeing the company’s India operations, and its franchise business across Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. He was also responsible for deployment of PepsiCo’s planned Rs33,000-crore investment in India between 2013 and 2020. PepsiCo India has 38 bottling plants and three food factories.

Prior to Nokia, Shivakumar, who graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, had a 14-year long stint at Hindustan Unilever Ltd where he oversaw expansion of the Lipton tea brand. Shivakumar also worked with electronics goods maker Philips Consumer Electronics India for three years.

Kapil Tyagi is a Passionate Blogger | Digital Marketing Consultant | Speaker | Trainer
Hi! I am a Certified Digital Marketing Professional with 5+ years of experience in improving traffic, Generating Leads for B2B, B2C & Media Companies and conversions for websites & have expertise in SEM, SEO, SMO, AdWords, E-mail Marketing & SMS Marketing with positive result for clients. For DM Support and Service call on 9953226625